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Plans in place for chip-based passports08 December 2003 By RICHARD WOOD Sue Boland, general manager of the Identity Services division of Internal Affairs, says the division is already developing the systems and processes needed, but declines to estimate the potential cost. Identity Services will go to the market for technology to implement the microchip passport project in March. The justification for storing digital photos on a microchip in a passport is that border control officers in a foreign country can use facial recognition software to compare it to a photo they take on entry and to databases of terrorists and other undesirables. The passports will store the photo on the chip according to a standard agreed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation earlier this year. These photos can then be "read" by placing the passport within 10 centimetres of a purpose-built computer terminal. With the volume of information being transferred it requires more than a simple wave past. The US is driving the change by requiring passports issued from October 26, 2004 have the chip, if passport-holders are to be allowed entry to the US. It changed its border control laws to that effect in May 2002. Fingerprints will not be stored on the chip but the US is expected to start fingerprinting US visa-holders from January 2004. Ms Boland says photos of New Zealanders already stored in a 110 gigabyte Oracle database will not be transmitted directly to foreign governments as part of the system and will not be made available to 30 countries set to participate in a stolen passport information-sharing scheme. Digital pictures and passport information in electronic form have been available to NZ Customs since 1992 under the auspices of the Passports Act. A law change that will allow stolen passport information to be shared between 30 countries is included in the Identity, Citizenship and Travel Documents Bill that is currently waiting to be introduced in parliament. However, Ms Boland says this notification process will not include passing photographs. It is likely there is massive duplication between the passport photo database and the drivers licence database held by the LTSA. But Ms Boland says it would not be appropriate to combine those two databases because of privacy issues. Australia launched new passports in November incorporating anti-tampering technology such as a holographic kangaroo that jumps up and down when tilted. Such technology has been built into New Zealand passports since December 2000. In another development expected to tighten security, information needed for issuing first-time passports is now being accessed directly by Internal Affairs from its centralised database of births, deaths and marriages. Since November 26, birth, marriage and citizenship certificates no longer need to be sent in support of passport applications lodged within New Zealand. The centralised database could become the base for a central identity database the Government plans to establish to authenticate the identity of people accessing e-government services online. A select committee report published last week says Identity Services is mid-way through implementing an "extensive" development programme targeting e-government and security and is building an "enhanced technology infrastructure" for secure online services. Original article is copyright 2004 to Stuff NZ |
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